[6th floor via staircase.]
[45 gypsum boards, 2.5 yuan per floor, 15 yuan per board, total amount: 675 yuan.]
[5 bundles of keel, 10 yuan per bundle, total amount: 50 yuan.]
[37 bags of putty powder, 4.5 yuan per bag, total amount: 166.5.]
[Total: 891.5 yuan.]
"Brother, you worked hard today. Consider the extra money as a treat for a bottle of drink!"
[900 yuan received via Alipay.]
...
International metropolis, Rakshasa City.
Late at night.
In front of an old residential building.
It was already autumn by then, with the weather turning colder, and most people had started wearing sweatshirts or long sleeves.
But Lin Mo, who had worked for half the day, was still bare-chested, allowing sweat beads the size of soybeans to continuously roll down his body.
"Thank you, boss. Contact me anytime you have more work!"
Lin Mo wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand, then replied to a message with trembling fingers. He got on his electric bike and headed home.
He had a good build, a robust physique with well-developed muscles, especially the block-like pectorals and abs, giving off an impression of sturdiness at first glance.
But upon closer inspection, one would notice that Lin Mo's back was covered with dense, thin scars,
as well as peeling dead skin from prolonged exposure to the sun.
His palms had become as rough as the bark of an old pine tree, with cracks on the backs of his hands, and thick calluses in his palms.
Beyond these external scars, he had serious issues with his meniscus, lumbar muscle strain, and bursitis, often needing to work while wearing large patches of pain-relieving plaster.
Although he made nearly a thousand yuan today, which was a lot of money for most people, Lin Mo wasn't very happy.
Like most men, he was facing his own midlife crisis.
At 30 years old, his body had started to gradually decline, and nobody knew how long he could continue with such intense physical labor.
Beyond that,
the cost of living in Rakshasa City was terrifying,
with the expenses for his daughter's elementary school, plus monthly rent and other living costs, nearly consuming 80% of his total income.
He could save very little money each month.
Forget about settling down in the big city, he didn't even have enough money to buy an apartment outright in a small county town.
And going back to his hometown?
Heh.
Lin Mo's parents were also migrant workers from out of town, and he was born in Rakshasa City.
To him, "hometown" was nothing more than a dilapidated adobe house he visited maybe once every three to five years.
No connections, no familiar friends, he didn't even know the roads in the county town.
What could he possibly do if he returned to his hometown?
He remembered when he had just graduated, Lin Mo was full of ambition, wanting to carve out a niche for himself in the big city, but he sadly realized that the children of workers mostly end up as workers themselves.
Climbing the social ladder wasn't as easy as he had thought.
A hometown that he couldn't return to, a city that he couldn't hold onto.
Despite his utmost effort, he couldn't offer his wife and child a stable life.
This was the most honest portrayal of Lin Mo's life.
.....
Because he lived in the suburbs, by the time Lin Mo stood in front of his house, it was nearly 9 p.m.
"Hss..."
Standing at the entrance of his rented apartment, Lin Mo took a deep breath, gave himself a relaxed smile, then took out his keys and turned the door lock.
Creak—
The rusty security door opened, revealing a small but very clean and tidy living room.
"Daddy's back!"
The cute little girl sitting at the dining table doing her homework stood up at once upon seeing Lin Mo, hurriedly ran over, and leaped into his arms.
Lin Mo instinctively lifted his daughter but winced from a sharp pain in his back, freezing the smile on his face.
Hss...
Lin Mo gritted his teeth, drawing in a sharp breath.
Lin Xiaoxiao, his daughter, looked at him confused and asked, "Daddy, what's wrong? Is Xiaoxiao too heavy?"
Uh...
Ignoring the cold sweat beading on his forehead, Lin Mo endured the pain in his back and said with a smile, "You're not heavy at all, not in the slightest!!!"
Hearing the commotion in the living room, a woman of average height, slender build, and fair complexion, dressed in an apron, walked out from the kitchen.
"Xiaoxiao, go wash your hands. Dinner will be ready soon!"
Her name was Li Jinwen, Lin Mo's former college classmate and his present wife.
Lin Mo gently let his daughter down, patting her head and saying, "Listen to Mommy and go wash your hands."
"Okay."
Lin Xiaoxiao replied obediently and walked into the nearby bathroom reluctantly.
"Ouch..."
As soon as the bathroom door closed, Lin Mo, one hand on his lower back, contorted his face in pain.
It really hurt!
That kind of pain coming from the inside of the muscles, as if he'd been hit with a dull club.
Li Jinwen asked with concern, "Is your back hurting again? Let me put some medicinal plaster on it for you!"
"No need, it was a bit cold on the way home, probably just caught a draft. It's nothing." Lin Mo rubbed his lower back and took a deep breath.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's nothing. It'll get better in a bit. Go heat the food; I'm starving."
"Alright, sit down and rest a bit; I'll go warm up the food." Li Jinwen turned and hurried back into the kitchen.
"Oh right, didn't we say that you two don't need to wait for me to come back to eat together? I got home so late."
"Xiaoxiao said she wouldn't eat if you didn't come back."
"Alright..."
Lin Mo watched his wife's retreating figure, feeling an enormous sense of emotion well up within him.
His wife was indeed a good, virtuous wife and mother.
Lin Mo had thought so when they were dating, and he thought the same now.
Marrying such a woman was the proudest achievement of his life.